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Veal or Pork Brawn

A gelatinous meat dish made from veal or pork, bacon, eggs, parsley, lemon rind, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal or Pork Brawn

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin and cut the veal and bacon into small dice.

  2. Choose a small dry mold or cake tin.

  3. Decorate the bottom and sides with a few slices of hard-boiled egg.

  4. Chop the remaining hard-boiled egg and mix it with the veal, bacon, parsley, and lemon rind.

  5. Season well.

  6. Fill the mold with the mixture.

Make the stock and bake

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in the white stock.

  2. Season the stock.

  3. Strain the stock into the mold.

  4. Cover the brawn with greased paper.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.

  6. Strain in the remaining stock.

Set and serve

  1. Let it cool and firm up.

  2. Dip the mold in warm water for a moment.

  3. Invert onto a dish.

  4. Garnish with parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Veal cutlet or pork
Forms the main body of the brawn, giving it a meaty texture once set.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that keeps the meat moist as it bakes.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add structure and a firm, sliced contrast when the brawn is turned out.
Gelatine
Sets the cooking liquid so the brawn holds its shape when cooled.
White stock
Supplies liquid that carries flavor and, with gelatine, becomes the set jelly.

The step that matters

Strain the stock into the mold. Gelatine must be fully dissolved in the stock before it goes in, or the brawn will not set evenly. Adding the stock in two portions lets the meat settle and keeps the jelly clear and firm.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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